Goodmorning! First I’d like to apologize for not posting this earlier, second I’d like to apologize for not posting more on the other topics. They’re coming! I had other writing deadlines I had to take care of and can also excuse myself by reason of busyness. Actually, the only time I really get to write here is between 5am and 7 am. Yes, you got it, I’m an early riser most of the time, and it’s not necessarily because I’m homeschooled either.

And homeschooling, that’s what I’m going to be talking about again this morning. I would like to thank Bill from Ask The Principal for letting me interview him. Bill is a public school principal with more years of experience educating than I have living. He prefers to remain anonymous so we’ll just have to be satisfied with well, Bill.

Bill first heard about homeschooling while in college. “In the early 80’s,” he says, “the movement was just taking off and receiving a lot of press locally in my college town.” He met a couple homeschool-supporting professors over the next few years that gave the homeschooling movement credibility in his mind. After meeting a law professor who gave him the legal ins and outs of the issue and told him of the victories that homeschooling families had, Bill anchored his favor of homeschooling permanently. But as he says, “I was yet far from developing my own reasons.”

I guess he’s had enough time to do that, since we have quite a good list here of reasons to homeschool. Unquestionably, he has them down pat. And would you guess, he’s homeschooling his children. So what we have here is a teacher, a principal, and a homeschooling dad who can sign B.S., M.A. Ed behind his name. Very unique. Let’s plunge into the interview.

I asked Bill to give me 3 reasons to homeschool. The three points he chose were “Spiritual, Economical, and Practical”, so let’s take a look at the first. This is Bill.

Spiritual. One of my favorite books in the New Testament is Colossians. We don’t know what heresy that was infiltrating their church, but it was significant and Paul had to address it. I suppose if we knew the exact heresy we would spend more time avoiding the particular instance than in avoiding heresy in general. One of the popular verses in the book is in chapter 2 verse 8:

“See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.” (NASB)

The command “See to it…” is pretty strong. In fact, as a principal if I tell a staff member “See to it that…” I know it will be done. It is not an option. There is no waffling, etc. In terms of consequences, well, let me say that there is nothing I can do to anyone that comes remotely close to the consequences implied here if one does not take the command Paul gives of “See to it…” seriously. This whole book is excellent in terms of defining who Christ is and who we are as Christians in Him, to help us to “see to it” we are not taken captive.

As a husband and father, the “see to it” goes beyond just my own self. It is included in the leadership and discipleship of my family. For me, “See to it…”, among other things, includes the fact that my children will not be placed in a public school setting for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in godlessness. (See 2 Timothy 3:16 for an appropriate application of teaching, reproof, correction, and training in Godliness)

Ok readers, see to it that you read all the way through and comment now and on every post I make in the future. But now seriously, Bill has this pinned up very well. I think he’s seen a lot more of the training in godlessness than you or I have, and I admire him for seeing to it that his children grow up trained in Godliness.

We don’t have much time or space left for more today, so we’re actually going to leave the other two points for tomorrow morning. Check back as soon as you get out of bed to hear (aka read) what Bill has to say about the Economical, the Practical, his thoughts on the grading system, how he believes his children are excelling over their public school counterparts, and even more that I’m not mentioning.

Random: Why doesn’t Microsoft Word recognize ::homeschool:: as a properly spelled word?

• Read Spunky’s series of posts discussing homeschooling with Dr. Beam. [1] [2] [3]

Read Part 2 Here